“How can you eat without taking a shower? With boys, it’s a different matter.”

My weekly off from work falls on Monday. For two years into the marriage, my habit was to finish with a bit of cleaning and scrubbing around the house in the morning, wash clothes, take a bath and then eat my breakfast. My hubby, in the meanwhile, used to eat a quick breakfast such as cornflakes with milk and leave for office.

Last Monday, however, I chose to eat first and then do the cleaning stuff. I quickly made Uttampam with the left-over batter of last night, and I and my hubby sat down to eat. The in-laws fast on this day and hence I am saved the job to cook for them on this day. And only on this day.

The unthinkable then happened: Out came my MIL from her room, red-faced.

“How can you eat without taking a shower? With boys, it’s a different matter.” I did not say one word, and continued eating. But imagine being lambasted thus in the middle of a meal!

“If a girl has done MBBS or IAS, I can understand that she did not get time to learn cooking. But it’s strange how you, a mere journalism post graduate, failed to do so.”

This is my first post and I would like to begin the blog with an incident I shared on one of my favourite blogs ‘http://indianhomemaker.wordpress.com‘ last week  The post received an overwhelming number of reactions, some criticizing me for my low self-esteem, some sympathizing with me, some calling my MIL names and others offering me kind pieces of advice.

Here goes the incident:

I cooked the first meal at my in-laws’ house within the first week of the marriage. My mother-in-law had been well informed by my husband that I had never tried my hand at cooking before the wedding. And the wedding, despite my subdued protests, had been arranged within a month of the hurriedly organised roka ceremony, leaving me no time to learn enough cooking. Not that I considered skill at cooking a per-condition to marriage.

So when I braced myself to cook that first meal, I was definitely expecting help from the MIL. I expected her to stand beside me and give directions. None of that happened. So I called up my mother and quickly asked her how to proceed.

The directions taken, I prepared the dish – French Beans and potato. Thankfully, it did not turn out to be a disaster but, as I got to know in a short while, was left a bit undercooked.

I agree that a half-baked meal spoilt an evening. (But a smarter Mil would have cooked one more dish to survive the meal. She didn’t.)

But how is this statement given by my MIL justified? – “If a girl has done MBBS or IAS, I can understand that she did not get time to learn cooking. But it’s strange how you, a mere journalism post graduate, failed to do so.”

I am working with a leading English national daily.

 

For reactions: Click here: http://indianhomemaker.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/if-a-girl-has-done-mbbs-or-ias-i-can-understand-that-she-did-not-get-time-to-learn-cooking-but-its-strange-how-you-a-mere-journalism-post-graduate-failed-to-do-so/